Peggy O'Neill,Loyola University Maryland,on the Limits of Machine Scoring of Writing

Peggy makes the case that machines can only score one, limited kind of writing and that kind of writing is not the complex writing expected in college and the workplace.

Chris Anson,North Carolina State University, on What Machine Scoring Can't Do

Chris concedes the value of machines analyzing texts, but points out what they can't do effectively in evaluating student learning/writing.

Carolyn Calhoon-Dillahunt, Yakima Valley Community College, Washington, Tells a Story about How Machine Scoring Was Useless in Administering Placement Exams

Carolyn goes into persuasive detail about the limits of the e-write scoring program. She says it rewards students for writing mechanical pieces and that it isn't reliable. She adds that human scorers in her department disagreed with the machine scores.

Les discusses the artificiality of automated essay scoring. Says SAT is a race to see how many words a student can get on a paper in time limit. Points out that machine scoring tends to be biased against ELL’s because it over-emphasizes errors with prepositions and articles.